Former Denver Nuggets Head Coach Joins ESPN's "NBA Countdown"

Just months ago, Michael Malone was barking instructions at one of the best hoopers in NBA history. Now, the former Denver Nuggets head coach will have the ear of the entire basketball world as he transitions to a new role.

This week, ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro announced that Malone would be joining the panel of “NBA Countdown,” the pregame show that offers opinions and projections for NBA games aired by the network. According to the sports site Awful Announcing, Pitaro made this announcement at the “Tuned In” summit organized by Front Office Sports.

In more ways than one, this is an opportunity for Malone to bounce back after he was surprisingly fired by the Nuggets earlier this year. With just three games left on the Nuggets’ 2024–25 regular season slate, the 54-year-old coach was dismissed along with Nuggets GM Calvin Booth.

Reports of serious friction between Malone and Booth circulated soon after, with the head coach also being described as a “taskmaster” who allegedly gave three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic a tough time. In a piece published in The Athletic shortly before the playoffs, Sam Amick and Tony Jones claimed that Jokic had grown “frustrated and fatigued” in his dealings with Malone.

Still, the record books show that Malone (a second-generation coach who took after his father, the late Brendan Malone) was the head coach of the Nuggets’ 2023 championship squad. Throughout his 10-year stint in the Mile High, Malone amassed a 471-327 record and took the team to the playoffs seven times.

In other words, if there’s any analyst who has profound experience of what it takes to win in the NBA, it’s Malone. By joining the “NBA Countdown” team, he joins a group that includes broadcast veterans Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon, insider Shams Charania, former Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers, and anchor Malika Andrews.

Just as he’s demonstrated in numerous in-game interviews and post-game media sessions, Malone possesses the gift of eloquently communicating basketball concepts. This level of articulation will be an asset to the former NBA head coach as he moves over to the role of full-time TV analyst.